I still get Lance Barr and Lance Bass from N Sync mixed up.

@DennyCrane

Retro is a full team again, true. But they can work on other IPs. With their experience in 2D platformers, Retro could make 2D Marios, instead of or additional to EPD. New Super Mario U Deluxe sold more than 18m units!

The Prime 4 hype simply is not there, sad as I am to point it out

It’s interesting seeing MP4 with a much bigger split on Switch 2; that generally isn’t happening yet. The adults who were early adopters have gone for it.

It was fine. There wasn't anything new or revelatory in it. There's a new telling of this story on YouTube every other week or so.

Mario Kart World still at no2 is incredible. This game has legs and people like it. Even on here, it often finishes in the top 3 most played games.

@SoIDecidedTo Retro really should carry on. They worked with ideas they knew would end up a problem, but had to carry on. Now they are ready to go, it will be great to see what they produce.

@Jhena I would love to see what Bandai had going as a curiosity

It is a shame MP4 didn't sell as well as it could have. It has it's flaws for sure, but there is a really fun game in there despite them. The bike and therefore the desert suck me out of it and the NPCs would have been better if they were more like Ice Belt fellow, but I had a fantastic time. The internet has been so aggressive with the flaws that it would have put some off, sadly. I have been playing the series since '89, so no doubt i was going to own it.

@SoIDecidedTo
I have no idea.

It would be cool to see, what the original Metroid Prime 4 looked like.

We as humans often practice the walled garden approach to everything.

Taco Bell doesn't sell spaghetti
Coffee stops don't change your car's oil
Kid cartoons will not contain explicitly adult content
Baseball won't ever include a five mile race

Even if we hyperfocus on games, it remains the same.

Madden won't have RPG mechanics
Persona won't have FPS elements
Mario games won't have blood and gore

The list goes on. Exclusives are the draw we go to said product for. If Sony and MS actually cared about their brand, it would have led to console selling releases. And those releases would NEVER leave those systems.

@Jhena Does this include the re-do? Like wasn't it rather complete and they didn't like it so they started over? I'd rather see Retro start something new (ETERNAL DARKNESS!) and let someone else take on Metroid for a while.

Thanks for posting this. I just finished watching the video and wow. That's great material.

My favorite quote: "Atari created its own monster, but that monster might actually have saved video games!!"

@Max_the_German despite the sales (expected) and reception, there will for sure be another soon. They have pulled together a team, a team with experience now who can start from scratch and they will take on board criticisms. Prime 4 went through hell to get here and now they are set up and ready they will not just walk away from the franchise

The internet says, that Metroid Prime 4 cost around 100 million dollars to make, which would make it Nintendo's most expensive game yet.

Now I can't remember if that unreleased HAL Laboratory port of Galaga was a new addition (though they only had the PRG ROM, so they had to recreate the CHR to make a playable game).

I do remember a few years we saw an upload of a very unfinished build of a Namco port, separate of a version Namco produced themselves. Can't remember which game, but maybe that was it. I think it might have been from the collection of former EGM editor Ed Semrad when he let Frank rummage through and digitize his collection.

Certainly unreleased because of Namco's own port.

I watched this yesterday, wasn't bad

@TrogdorTheBurninator

Both the poor critical reception and the low sales numbers are no advertising for another Metroid Prime game. I would be surprised if MP4 were hitting break-even. And its effect on pushing the appeal of Switch is also quite limited.

I think that this was the last new Metriod Prime title for a very long time.

Amazing video that sheds an interesting light on the NES.

Do these Switch 1 vs Switch 2 sales include buying on Switch 1, then upgrading? That's what I did so I could have a not-ugly game box and had leftover eShop funds from when Target sent out apology funds to everyone who preordered the Switch 2 (they were late deliveries).

But Switch 2 is failing. This can't be true!!!!!

Loved the video, but the weird thing was, lady arcade made almost the same video 2 weeks ago sbout rhe avs. Weird.

Nice to see Clubhouse Games at #9, I didn't realize it was selling that good.

Very enjoyable video. I, too, give it a full throated endorsement.

Nintendo UK is probably finishing the year pretty chuffed, all their big releases from the year are in the top 10 or just outside along with a handful of evergreen titles, I'm quietly surprised to see Mario Kart selling quite as well as it is

Good to see Switch 2 ports doing so well. ~20% of sales seems pretty good ratio for more future ports.

@LastFootnote all major IDE’s have AI code features built in, and the AI autocomplete is far too convenient for the vast majority of developers to turn off.

Even if Nintendo ordered all their developers to turn these things off (and there’s no evidence that they did) some employees would look for ways around it.

Asked them nicely again to update Crystal Chronicles to allow us to play together on one console.

Jesus this is so stupid. Not every video game needs to be upgraded for every console generation. I'm completely fine playing these games on the system I already own the games for while waiting for something genuinely new to be launched for the current generation.

Pikmin 4 would really benefit from a Switch 2 Edition this year. Or even just a resolution and performance patch. Give me something!

@Aquinas Pikmin 3 is a 10 - 20 hour experience. Longer than the original, shorter than 4, but pretty much in line with the rest of the series.

@AnnoyingFrenzy uk sales doesnt speak volume for other regions sales like in the west and their not as picky like the UK region is since sports games is their arena.

@RoboCube If I’m not mistaken, Arcade Archives 2 versions (Switch 2, PS5, XBox Series) add rewind, a Time Attack mode, multiple save slots (as opposed to one), VRR for games that display different refreshes normally so they can be shown more accurately, and online multiplayer to games that support simultaneous multiplayer. The Nintendo US listing for Space Invaders for Switch 2 specifically mentions Time Attack, multiple save slots, rewind, and VRR. And this is another release where they tweaked the audio a bit to make it sound closer to the original arcade audio (like they did with Donkey Kong), because old games from late 70’s-early 80’s did not output 44.1kHz 16-bit audio like most emulators have us believe. Their releases may not have as much extras as larger companies like Capcom and Atari can put in. A lot of people would even say this is standard. (It is now, not when they started). But in a lot of cases, they are doing more than expected to ensure the core experience is preserved. They’ll even patch games long after release, which is more than I can say with some compilations out there that were obviously one-and-done contract jobs (looking at you, Namco).

Hamster is working with the original PCBs on every game, making fresh dumps of the ROMs so they can ensure accuracy. Sometimes they even catch long-standing emulation mistakes. Like emulation Contra has been wrong for literal decades. In the 3D sections, the rolling mines and most enemy fire has been veering to a spot on the lower right of the screen. Hamster found out there was a coprocessor on the PCB that was never emulated. They programmed it in and sure enough, enemy projectiles correctly fan out along the corridor. Even M2 got it wrong in the Contra Collection, with shots and mines going to the right. There’s even slowdown in the first stage when someone picks up the Spread gun. Audio sounds weak, as well. (there is a new update to the Contra Collection, however, that I want to try on one of my spare Switches to see if those things were fixed).

seems metroid is not popular in uk region while in the west it does really well.

@AnnoyingFrenzy

Exactly. None of the Xenoblade games have broken 2 million sales bar no.2 but Nintendo is all in on that franchise. Not every game series has to be a sales juggernaut, just provide another option to complement the juggernauts and make the platform feel worthwhile.

Now time to give us another Wave Race, Star Fox and F-Zero too.

Considering Samus Returns didn't break one million and we still got Dread, as well as Federation Force doing miserable sales wise and Prime 4 was still greenlit, I'm not too worried about how well it does, although higher sales are always nicer.

I feel like someone should tell him AI is subsidized by companies and they are just trying to get them hooked so they can jack up the prices.

@Gabe250 yeah and I hate that D-pad, to fit the hardware in the joycon you might need to make it even smaller because they are larger under the surface, I really don't think those d-pads would work and I wouldn't want them if they did.

MP4 is #32 in the chart. @dartmonkey

Some positions well held by the big N.
Will be interesting to see how MKW does if the bundle deal with the console stops as per rumours.

Reiterating my comment from a previous AI-related article:

I will always be vehemently against all GenAI usage. Even if you're using it as "reference material" it's still going to be less effective than actual real-world references, doesn't rely on stolen art/pictures, and doesn't negatively impact the environment.

I want the AI bubble to burst already, and I want companies that have been using/pushing it so hard to crash right along with it.

Wonder if they will break even on MP4...

I'm here for remakes. Trials of Mana & FF7 remake are triumphs. Wishlist: FF4, FF6, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana.

I know it's not happening, but 🙏

Poor kirby air riders

You may not like the game but Switch 1 and 2 getting 30% of the EAFC 26 sales is good for future third party efforts on the Nintendo platforms.

I’d like to say they’re doing god’s work, but that’s M2.

I think preservation of these types of experiences is such a positive thing, but there IS a bare minimum vibe to their output that ensures I mostly drift by whenever I’m eShop scrolling. The physical collections for NEO GEO are pretty cynically curated - if you just want one franchise or genre you’re basically forced to buy multiple volumes. It’s done to a level that I’m pretty sure has a negative impact on sales, for me at least I’m left in a cyber pickle trying to evaluate which volume would be a good choice, by that time a more lovingly crafted, fully featured collection pops up on the algo’.

That said - long may you thrive, Hamster - and may your new year goal be to revamp and embellish these curios further.